Finally into Cambodia

After a bad attempt to get an early night sleep, we got up early very tired but ready to travel. Everything proved promising after a minibus ride to the border town Poi-Pet. However, once again it proved more difficult than expected to cross the border. After some confusion we discovered we had overstayed are welcome in Thailand as are visa had run out the day before...urgh. With some long queuing and a small fine we thankfully got through. On the cambodian side we decided to travel by taxi to are destination of Siam Reap as this would cut down are travel time by several hours, we then watched as a rust bucket or debatably a car approached towards us. We reluctantly got in the peace of metal with Grieve not only noticing severe cracks in the window but the speedometre and rev counter also failing to work, not only this there seems to be no road laws with the only right of way being the beebing of the horn. Fortunately are promised shorter journey turned out to be true and we arrived at a rather pleasent guest house where we then booked a tour round the temples with a 5am start. With an early start the next day and still feeling tired from our travels we decided to get an early night. In the morning Grieve felt rather ill and decided to stay at the guest house, i then persued to get stuck in the toilet with the door not opening. Felly, however, was determined not to travel alone and thankfully bashed the door open (typical forward thinking). Felly and I (walmsley) went about touring the temples, seeing several temples including Ankor Wat at sunrise and the same temple in the film Lara Croft was amazing. With a large amount of the day still ahead of us we went back to check on Grieve who still felt worse for wear. So Felly and I decided to go on to the national history museum which proved most interesting. Later in the day with Grieve feeling better we traveled into town to look around and watch the six nations. Edging to move on we caught a bus ride the next day to Phnom Penh where I was greeted with welcome signs at the bus station. Confused as to weather i was unknowingly a national celebrity we procided to are next guest house where we are know chilling. Tomorrow (1st march) we have a booked tour around the city to see a large number of the surronding tourist attractions.

Still in Bangkok?!?

I would like to take this time to apologise to the hundreds of thousands of readers of this blog who thought we had left Bangkok to travel to Bangkok. Instead; Mr. Fell thought he'd buy a tailor made dinner suit. He arrived to a tailors that had a good reputation wearing a sleeves top and swimming shorts.. Suffice to say he looked out of place considering the rest of the clientele were all at least double our age wearing top quality suits, one of whom happened to have a permanent room at the Marriot Hotel 100m away which cost him 15,000pounds a month, and another worked at the American Embassy in China. An obvious factor in Felly's decision to come to this tailor in particular was because it was also located in Prostitute Central - a well renowned 'Soi' in Bangkok. After Felly's second fitting the following day (yesterday); he and I decided it would be hilarious to go to one of the many strip bars in Soi Nana and tell them it was Walmo's birthday. It was particularly difficult to keep a straight face watching Walmo have all the staff in the seedy bar dancing around him with the DJ playing 'Happy Birthday' and him being forced to go along with it. We then decided not to stick around the area for much longer as the drinks were about triple the price and having prositutes constantly whistling and waving at us became a bit unnerving after a while. We went back to Khao San road and hit the buckets; meeting scores of people on the way.
Today we haven't really done much except for buy our bus ticket to Siam Reap, Cambodia where we will have to get up at like 6am for a 7am departure. I usually go to sleep at that time... not wake up then! Early night tonight for sure.

The capital of Thailand

After going to bed at an actual normal hour we wanted to get up bright and early to go and sort the visas as well as visit the temples. At 1pm we were awoken by Eoin (Owen) who informed us of the time. Our first port of call was a visa centre, and after asking to go to the Vietnamese embassy we were instead convinced to go to a travel agent for the visas who began quoting all sorts of ridiculous prices for the dual entry visa we needed. We instead decided, after advice from Eoin, we would get them on the boarders before entering Vietnam. Needless to say we played the old "We'll think about it" card to the salesman, before catching a Tuk-Tuk away from there with no intention to return. However, it seemed that today we were looking especially "touristy", as our problems with Tuk-Tuk drivers didn't end here. We ended up in 2 tuk tuks, with the promise of only 25 baht (50p) to visit all the temples and then return back to our hostel...obviously something else was going on but while they took us places and we didn't pay we were happy! We went to the "Golden Mount", before visiting "Wat Phra Kaew" or the "Temple of the Emerald Buddha". On entering here we got convinced to rent trousers and a shirt because we couldn't enter the temple without covering our arms and legs. We ended up keeping the trousers as the bright blue and red dragons that covered the clothes got a lot of smiles and comments. One guy said we looked like a boy band...Anyway the attention was something we always like so for 1 quid 50 Walmo, Grieve and I had our own boy band trousers. We then challanged the Tuk-Tuk drivers on why their price was so low, and they informed us that if they took us to 2 places after the temple then they would get free petrol. Reluctatly, and after some comments of "its an experience" we agree, in the knowledge that we would go into these places, pretend to discuss buying what they were selling, then leave. The first was another travel shop, and after some skillful negotiating by Grieve on something we weren't going to buy we were off to our final stop for the other Tuk-Tuk drivers petrol. This stop proved more problematic as it was a suit shop, and after 30 minutes of trying to get out of there Walmo, Eoin and I were being measured up for suits. However, non of us gave any money, intending to check out the reputation of the place before coming back and actually buying one. Well apart from Eoin, but he's Irish. Finally we got out, heading back to the hostel, more chilling before getting ready to hit another part of Bangkok for dinner, near "Little Arabia". Well, after wondering why the taxi driver was smiling all the way driving us there, we found out. The whole area was one big brothel. We quickly hit an Irish Pub, had a few drinks, before decided it was best to stick to what we know and come back to Koh San Road. After visiting Little Arabia (and a side street that what can only be described as "The Hood") we left. Having dinner, we headed out, quickly making the most of Eoin's last night. Photos a plenty, we headed back in the early morning, leaving Walmo speaking with a bunch of Scandinavian guys. Today we have got up late and are now chilling, with Eoin v annoyed about the state he has to travel in. English 1, Irish 0. Anyway I've written a small essay but next plans are Cambodia tomorrow.

Bangkok

On our last day we got up to see that our new neighbors happened to be 3 particularly attractive Swedish girls who were very friendly. This made us discuss whether it was worth canceling our travel plans and spending a couple more nights in Koh Phangan. However, the thought of the thousand baht spent on travelling and the fact that our new Irish companion Eoin (Pronounced Owen) had a flight to catch - we went on as planned. We had to get a 3 hour ferry ride to the mainland followed by an hour and half bus ride to Surat Thani train station where we boarded our night's accommodation. About 9 hours later we were woken by the beautiful morning sounds of Thai women trying to sell us things and eventually arrived at Bangkok station just before 11am. We located our hostel just off Khao San road (a notorious backpacker location in Bangkok) and after a wander up and down the road before heading to bed for a cheeky power nap in preparation for the night's events. We got the beers in to watch Everton destroy Manchester United (it was fun being an Everton fan for the night) and then headed to a couple of other bars where we met a couple more guys who Eoin knew from school. After a couple of whiskey buckets each and having great fun haggling with locals trying to sell us wooden frogs we headed to the roads only nightclub where we continously were avoiding the renowned ladyboys. Fell and I (Grieve) were woken by Eoin coming to our room informing us we left the key in the door last night. He then said that him and Walmo were going out (as they are sharing a room on the floor below us), but Felly and I declined as we had a lot more sleep to get. Felly and I then went to Chinatown to witness the end of the ceremonial Chinese New Year celebrations. And after meeting up with our crew we decided it was time to hit up a "ping pong show". Suffice to say we are all now quite scarred after seeing razor blades being pulled out vaginas and sprite being somehow turned into coke, amongst other "party tricks" - my only question is how did these women find out that their vaginas could do such things?! How bored must they have been one day at home...
Anyway that was earlier this evening and the tuk tuk ride home was subdued to say the least. Felly and Eeyore (as we like to call him) have gone to bed and Walmo and I are chilling in an internet cafe, en route to the hostel. Needless to say that none of us are particularly up for anything after our evening's spectacle. Tomorrow we plan to sort out our visas for Vietnam and visit a few temples, and maybe start arranging our travel plans through Cambodia which will begin in a couple of days.

More in Koh Phangan

With hard day of chilling we were up for relaxing some more. However, we still decided to check out the daily beach party which once again proved to be more than entertaining. With Felly and I showing are athletic ability when jumping over a high jump bar on fire and Grieve showing his most impressive musical chair skills. With all of us winning some free drinks during the night we went back to the resort with a hint of satisfaction. Waking up the next day proved tough as always knowing that a hard day of chilling lay ahead, after spending the day in town and on the beach we came back to yet another pool party at are resort. After meeting some really cool swedish guys and after having some fun tiredness once again set in with me heading back to the room and Grieve and Fell spending some at the pool. Unfortunately we had forgotten that we had signed up on a boat ride around the island and were woken up by the banging on the door for us to get up or we would miss it. The boat ride proved that are money had been well spent. With us seeing some awesome views, snorkelling and having a flying fish jump through are boat and over are heads. With the night ahead of us we chilled with some english guys and danish girls playing a couple of drinking games and then finishing the night at the beach. Today (19th) we are finally going to make a move, even though we had some great fun chilling we do miss traveling around and are taking a 18 hour train and ferry trip to Bangkok.

More on Koh Phangan

More on Koh Phangan

So I've decided to write this blog as well, seeing as the beach party last night (15th) was bypassed by Walmo. Not too much to report in this part of our journey, being pretty happy with our current location on the island we have just stayed at the same bungalows for the last couple of days. The Black Moon Party on the night of the 14th turned out to be what we expected- awesome! Meeting many other people at the resort pre-party planning the same night at us, it wasn't long before the night was in full swing, beers and buckets in plentiful supply. Luminous paint seemed a favorite at the pre-party, and it wasn't long before Grieve had hand prints on his guns, and Walmo had fake abs painted on his stomach. Although the paint glowed in the dark, what seemed a brilliant idea on the night turned out to be a nightmare to wash out off the next day... Still, a quailty night, however getting locked out of the room from about 6am until 7-30am because the key was still at the beach with Walmo wasn't the best fun (apart from the mosquitoes who were having a whale of a time).
After having a minimal amount of sleep, we ate breakfast, before Walmo and Grieve hit bed once again-obviously not true ravers. After sleeping until about 10pm, I decided I was too bored to let anyone rest more, and reminded them we had a beach party to get to. Grieve was game, sadly tiredness got the better of Walmsley and he stayed in bed. We then had a few drinks in the bar with guy we met from Ireland, and also one of the resort staff who informed us in detail and over about an hour of his many female exploits from the resort...awkward. Another good night ensued, with various challanges set up by the beach staff such as shooting a volley ball through a net to win drinks (even with our insane basketball skills we were all useless) and jumping through a hoop of fire. Tiredness set in, and I walked back to the resort leaving Grieve and our new mate from Ireland (Owen) to party some more. Today was a bit of a write off in the morning, however we decided to actually do something, hitting town to find some flip flops as well as going to the west of the island to check out a awesome beach, with picturesque tropical island scenery. After more chilling, we decided that after tonight we wanted to get check out west Thailand before going onto Bangkok, as although chilling is fun we all almost preferred travelling around a lot. Maybe go snorcalling tomorrow, then hopefully to west Thailand to see some more awesome beaches.

Koh Phangan continued

Koh Phangan continued...

So Grieve, Walmo and I ended up chilling out in the bungalow for a while, before the group decided to make a decision (!) and go somewhere a bit more tourist friendly. So we got another water taxi back to Hat Rin, the first beach we had come to on our arrival to Koh Phangan. Here we were instantly mobbed by a group of people trying to get us to come to a resort a bit further from the beach. The free taxi there and promise of "The Original Pool Party" that night sold it to us, and while we were unsure if it would be anything like the photos they had been waving around, on arrival we weren't dissappointed. In the "Coral Resort" we had our own room with air con and ample chill area, and while I had to share a double bed with Walmsley, its not like we weren't used to it... Anyway, we got the chance to sort our bags and re-charge cameras etc, before going to get dinner by the beach in the resort. However, tiredness had hit the group, and after a beer at dinner we went back to the room to get ready for the party, only to fall asleep. So psyched were we by the thought of a pool party, we ended up sleep until nearly 2am. Lucky for us the party was still in full swing, and being the "lads" that we were, decided to go anyway. After being there for a few hours, we hit the room again, remarking how while it had been fun, getting there before 2 am would have made it slightly better. We got up in the morning refreshed, intent on making the most of the Black Moon Party tonight. We did some more chilling (and as remarked by a certain Easy we had now got this to a fine art), before heading into town to have a look at a few shops and get some money. With little success, we played some cards in a cafe, before coming back to the resort, and hitting the internet. Our future plans include the party tonight, and as it is the start of Chinese New Year (14th to the 17th of Feb) should be pretty sweet. We then may stay here an extra night before returning to Hat Yun for a night or so. Soon to move on to Bangkok.

From Hat Yai to Koh Phangan

Hat Yai
We got an overnight bus from Kuala Lumpur to Hat Yai (south Thailand) where the air conditioning left the interior of the bus just over freezing temperature. Instead of the company turning up the heat they gave out blankets, so it more or less was bearable. Suffice to say when we alighted the bus back into the searing heat we were taken aback.
We spend the day in Hat Yai, the cheapest place by far we have been to. The taxis would be a definite health and safety hazard back home, as we just get onto the back of a small truck and hold on for dear life. We arrived at around 6am where nothing was open, so we just headed in one direction until places started opening up. We had breakfast at a local place where nobody spoke english, but was arguably the best place we've eaten so far (also the cheapest as each of our meals were about 60p). We then headed to the bus station to figure out our next journey details. We decided to get a 9.30pm overnight bus to Koh Phangan, a small island known for its parties and good beaches. Ideal. We then headed back into the centre of town in Hat Yai and went to a local market where it was crowded and hot and the locals laughed at us because we looked funny (later on we asked someone why this was and he reckoned it was because we were white and tall, looking completely out of place). This market was actually really cool and totally different to anything in the UK. After the market we decided to chill (suprise suprise) in a bar and play a bit of cards, before walking around town some more - Walmo bought some new flip flops and I wish I did too as mine are almost totally broken now. We then had some more chill time in another bar where we played some more cards - and we noticed Felly was being mocked by the staff because of his untucked indiana jones style green shirt and shorts.
The overnight bus was sadly nowhere near as comfortable as our previous journey. Not only did we have no leg space whatsoever, but the aisle of the bus was crammed full of people.

Koh Phangan
We arrived at the ferry terminal on mainland Thailand absolutely knackered at 3am, with our ferry not leaving till 8am, so it was time for some more cards and chilling. We fell asleep on the ferry over, waking up with the sun blaring down on us, each with peculiar tan lines (felly notably went the reddest with his shoulders being burnt outside of his sleeveless top). We then got the scariest taxi ever where our bags were on top of the cab and we couldnt see them, and the driver went hell for leather round bends and up and down hills, leaving us holding on to anything we could hoping neither we nor our bags fell out. We then had to get a water taxi to a couple of beautiful secluded beaches with no road links to the rest of the island. The place we wanted to stay in which has a load of bungalows is fully booked, but luckily because we're such legends they're letting us crash in their hammocks at night. Last night we went to this all night party - although I didn't make it to sunrise due to being a little worse for wear and tired because of the lack of sleep - the other two tell me that sunrise was a magical experience. This morning I got up out of the hammock and watched the staff do their rituals for Chinese New Year and chilled with some of the other guests till Walmo and Felly arose. We then hit the beach for some quality chill time, playing a bit of basketball and swimming in the sea until we decided to come here to the internet cafe. We're now deciding whether to stay another night in a hammock or head to a more populous area where there's a bigger nightlife scene and a place we can use plugs to charge our various electrical necessities.
The plan now is to head back to the bungalows and, you guessed it, chill.

With the rest of the day ahead of us we decided to check out Kuala Lumpar. So after getting our over night bus tickets to Hat Yai we started to make a move for the famed Petronus Towers. Taking the most direct route we could find towards the tower seeing seeing some cool sights on the way. We eventually ended up at a bar a short distance from the Petronus Towers. The Petronus towers, well lets just there huge and put Mr Fell to shame and inside was a cool shopping area. We then decided to head towards China town and called over a taxi, which was all fine. Then after a 10min taxi drive max we were quoted with an outrageous price with the taxi driver insisting he meant 30 dollar instead of the local baht. Thankfully Grieve decided to step up bullshiting his way through while while felly shoved in some sentences to quick for anyone to understand. The taxi driver eventually backed down realising he was getting no where. After the event we realised that it was still early in the day and went for some of the local food. Once some serious and necessary chilling we continued our journey of touring the city. We continued our sight seeing while gradually feeling more tired and generally sweating obscene amounts. As it came to the end of the day we all agreed that if we didn't have shower before we left an unpleasent bus ride would be an understatement, thankfully we found showers (which will never be more appreciated) shortly before our bus ride. After several hours of the over night bus ride we encountered more trouble at borders but nothing some english charm can't deal with. We're now in the centre of Hat Yai planning to catch another overnight bus to Koh Phanghan.
Update By walmo.

Onward from Singapore

So we decided to get the train to Penang on the evening of the 8th, got all packed up from our hostel after more of what we do best- chilling. Local food was the first port of call, then after a pretty hot walk, got the metro to the train station, where we encountered our first problem. The train only went to Kuala Lumpur, which was over 7 hours south of Penang, and apart from being a cool city to check out, it wasn't as great step northward as we had hoped. Walmsley here demonstated his Geographical skills- "Is Penang in Singapore?". Still, a few remarks by individuals such as "just chill" and "Come on guys, we'll see what happens" encouraged us to press on anyway, with the promise of beds on the overnight train to Kuala Lumpur. Beds we got, and after pretty relaxed security and passport checks we boarded the train, and settled down. Grieve fell asleep, while me and Walmsley chatted to a local about travelling around Asia. Turns out Chinese New Year (11th to the 14th of Feb) could create travel problems, as some trains don't run and others get full extremely quick.
After falling asleep briefly, there was a loud knock at the window and we realised we where on the only ones left on the train- more passport control. This turned out to be the biggest scare of the trip yet, as I had cleverly misplaced my boarder ticket that I got when we entered Singapore, and had to report quickly to the immigration office in order to be allowed out of the city. The chinese couple before we were completly rejected from travelling out of Singapore, and fearing the same fate I started to panic. However, smooth talking and boyish good looks allowed me to get passed boarder control, only to find Grieve and Walmo wandering about the station wondering what to do if I had been arrested. We finally got on the train, and fell back asleep uninterrupted for the remainder of the 8 hour journey.
Currently we are in Kuala Lumpur, about to check out China Town and the Petronas Towers, before boarding a bus and hopefully arriving in Hat Yai tomorrow morning (hopefully because it is a private bus service), a lot closer to our destination of Koh Phangan that we want to get to for the Black Moon Festival on the 13th of Feb.

Next post if all goes acording to plan- Hat Yai!

Singapore

After one long two-legged flight we arrived to our hostel all very tired - no wonder as there was quite a lot to do on the flight. I would definately recommend Qatar Airline to anyone - it was our cheapest option but it was one of the best flights I've been on. Sleeping in a 12 bed dorm just by little India. Last night we went to a hotspot called Clarke Quay where we spent wayyyy too much money on our first meal, and we didn't even drink more than 2 beers each. Nonetheless it was a good experience but we've learnt our lesson to be a lot more budget-savvy.
We're now sitting in an internet cafe opposite the famous raffles hotel. Although to drink a Singapore Sling from its origin would be nice, it is distinctly out of our price range. Although we've paid to stay in our hostel one more night, we're thinking about getting an overnight train tonight to Penang, Malaysia as it is a 14 hour journey and getting it tomorrow would just wipe out a day. The fact that the sooner we leave Singapore, the sooner and longer we can chill on the secluded beaches in Koh Phangan, Thailand.
We're en route to the bus station to find out the length and price of a journey out of Singapore - as we're undecided whether the S$60 price tag on a train journey is a rip off or not.
If we do decide to leave tonight, we'd get a train at approximately 10pm and aim to only spend one night in Georgetown, Penang. This would mean we then leave the following day to Koh Phangan where we will spend a few nights chilling on the beaches and attending the Black Moon Party (13th Feb). This also means that it is unknown when we'll next be able to reach an internet cafe.

All in all we're in pretty good spirits and dealing well with the jetlag, after being a little grouchy for the first 24hours.

This blog was written by Grievzy, the next entry - who knows!

Leaving

So tonight is our last night in the UK for a while! At 1415 we leave on a Qatar air flight to Singapore!